


[: \\Programming Jack69

by alex_archer



Category: Borderlands
Genre: AI!Rhys, Artificial Intelligence, Explicit Language, body theft, gender choosing, lol i'm not even kidding rhys steals a body, pronoun choosing, young!Jack, young!angel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5720557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_archer/pseuds/alex_archer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack built an AI on accident, Angel helped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on my phone in google docs, and it is terrible. Wrote it all in one sitting, and I was quite possibly dying of the plague at that time. My phone kept wanting to auto correct 'a' to 'anetsenetmena' and I hate it. This fic is the definition of a crack fic, so here you go.
> 
> Anything that starts with {: is Jack and anything that starts with [: is Rhys.
> 
> Also, I know computer codes and command prompts, but the ones in this fic are basically just made up. I based 'em off real ones, but it's a story.

Jack switched off his desk lamp and sat back for a moment, kicking his feet up on the desk and putting his hands behind his head. He caught a glimpse of the time on his watch as it went by, 4:17am. He'd been at this for days. Normally he went home slightly earlier, but he'd only had a few hundred more lines of code to go. Now, he relaxed and watched all his hard work run all across the digimonitor in front of him. The millions of lines of code were finally put together for the first time, and he was just sending them through through a checker now. It would look for anything he’d missed, and things he'd forgot. Tags were always a bitch. One open tag and your whole code for reference was fucked. This was the easy part, and the boring part as well.

Content that the code would run smoothly through the program, Jack stood up with a huff. His legs threatened to give out on him and he gripped the desk for support, we was more tired than he thought. Regaining his composure, he made his way over to the coffee machine. He poured some grinds in the filter and slipped it into place. Pressing the button to start brewing, he chose the strongest brew. He reached into his pocket and grabbed the custom ECHO device he'd made, it was slimmer and far more flexible than the current model, but Hyperion had still turned down his offer to sell it to them. It's not like he needed the money or anything, low level programming jobs had great salaries! He pressed a button and the ECHO lit up, the screen instantly showing picture.

“Flawless design,” he muttered to himself. It may have been a year ago he was turned down, but he could still be sour about it. Using two fingers, he zoomed into the video feed pictured on the device. It was dark, but he could easily make out the small figure of Angel, tucked in her bed, her stuffed unicorn nested under her arm. She was illuminated by the twinkling fairy lights hanging around her room. She was deep asleep, mouth slightly open to let some drool drip through. It was truly an amusing sight.

_*clack clack...clack*_

Jack inhaled, his chuckle caught in his throat. The noise startled him, and he looked around the office. It was completely empty, and yet that was the distinct sound of keys on a keyboard being pressed. He supposed it must have been his imagination, as the sound didn't repeat for two minutes.

And so he went back to waiting for his coffee and watching Angel, mesmerized by the blissfully pleasant expression she wore. She was just telling him this morning of the dreams she'd been having lately. She said she dreamt of a cold, blue light swallowing her up. Jack had asked if it was a nightmare, if the light was scary. Angel just shook her head and said the light felt just like she imagined a computer feels when it boots. He'd just laughed it off and blamed it on the damn lights in her room.

_*click thud*_

This time, Jack wasn't startled by a sudden break in silence. This noise was a good noise and meant his brew had finished. He locked the ECHO device and slid it back into his pocket with one hand, reaching into the open cabinet with the other.

_*clack...clack clackclackclack*_

Jack paused, just barely touching the ceramic mug. He waited for someone to step out of the shadows. When he wasn't immediately viciously murdered, Jack slowly inched his hand forward. He grabbed the mug and the coffee pot and poured, damn near overflowing his cup. He placed the pot back on the heater and made his way back to his desk.

Spinning his chair to take a seat, Jack's eyes turned to the screen. He felt his mug slip through his fingers and didn't even hear the ceramic breaking as it hit the floor. Instead, his mind was focused on another sound.

_*clickclick click clickclick click click*_

Jack sat there, staring at the letters on his screen. Where, not five minutes earlier, there had been millions of lines of complex code flying up the screen, there was now simple white text on a plain black background.

[: FLAWLESS DESIGN

Jack’s mind shot back to before, when he had commented on the ECHO device. His thoughts were racing, did the computer recognize and transcribe his words? Of course, that had to be the answer. Jack used his feet to pull his chair towards the desk, trampling the remains of his drink. He quickly tapped out something on the keyboard, watching as his text showed up in a familiar yellow.

{: SYS PING /f /r

Immediately after, another two lines of white text came on screen.

[: REQUEST TIMED OUT

[: NO SOLUTION FOUND

And Jack's heart sank. The system wasn't online yet, of course he couldn't get a response. He leaned back in his chair again, rubbing his jaw with his thumb. Could it be another system linking with this one? He thought he'd used separate wiring and plugs for this, but he'd been wrong before. He didn’t see how another device could mess with the checker, still, it didn't hurt to check. His next command was simple, just checking to see if there were other systems on the network he was connected to, and to name them if there were. He had to first designate which network he was on, and then and an exclusion for himself, no need to know he was connected.

{: /network:HYP

{: /EXCLUDE:Jack69

{: HYP VIEW

He hit enter and watched as the command ran. He saw a few familiar names, the systems of people he'd gotten to help him with this doomed project. None of them seemed to stick, and the return came up empty.

[: REQUEST TIMED OUT

Jack put his face in his hands and let out a groan. This was all probably just a bug, and he'd be laughed at when the rest of the office came in tomorrow. Part of him wanted to look and see if someone had stuck an ECHO stick drive into his system and that's what was interfering with his checks. It was probably Meg, she'd be the one to use voice transcription and cloaking.

Jack moved his hands back to hover over the keyboard, about to type out a command that would search for physical devices when he heard the noise again. He watched as text came up on the screen, each white character showing up in perfect time with the clicking.

[: /network:HYP

[: HYP VIEW

They were the commands he'd tried before, minus the exclusion. He waited for for the response, nearly forgetting to blink. It was odd seeing text appear on a screen when you aren’t the one typing.

[: \\\Programming Jack69

That's exactly what was to be expected, the command returned with his system. Before he could type again, more white text came across the screen. Damn Meg couldn't even get the drive to do more than one thing, what a disappointment. Even though the next few lines of white text was curious, it just looked like the system had misinterpreted him and was searching for itself everywhere.

[: cd/

[: DIR Jack69.* /s

“Son of a taint,” Jack muttered. He started typing frantically, trying to override the most recent search command. It was searching the entire main drive for things with the same name as his system. The results of that search would turn up millions of items, it would crash the system beyond repair. Of course, all of his typing was useless as none of the yellow text showed up on the screen. He resigned to watching in horror as the program scanned every item, waiting for the blue screen to show up. Instead of crash report, however, another three lines of code appeared, still accompanied by the sounds of a keyboard.

[: SUCCESS

[: FOUND 4:13a Jack69.exe

[: EXECUTE? (Y/N)

Jack stared at the screen in disbelief, there's no way the search should have found something so quickly, not without some form of CPU or Memory acceleration. There was also no reason for an executable to share his system name. Jack looked at his watch, 4:29am. The executable must have been made just before he ran the code through the checker, but how? He quickly typed a prompt.

{: DIR jack.exe /q

A few seconds passed before the command return.

[: owner/ USER:Jack69

[: EXECUTE? (Y/N)

Jack was completely at a loss. The program he plugged the code into was a simple cross-check platform, it wasn't capable of running or activating code. Yet here was an entire executable made from the very same code. There was something missing, how could he not put it together? Staring at the blinking place marker on the screen, it taunted him to respond. The blinking fell into perfect sync with the barely audible ticking of his watch.

“Oh-ho-oooooo! That's it!” Jack exclaimed, his loud burst of excitement was lost in the empty room. The executable was created _before_ he put the code in the program, it _made itself_ when he put all the code together. “Of course! It makes perfect fucking sense!” Jack smiled to himself. When he combined the code to put into the checker, it was the first time ever it had been complete. He'd activated the code without even realizing it, how could he be so stupid? With a deep breath and a here-goes-nothing chuckle, Jack went back to the keyboard to type.

{: Y

He raised his finger over the enter key, hesitating for a moment before bringing it down to start the file. As soon as the command had been given, the screen went blank.

A white void now took over his digimonitor, a stark contrast to the black of the command prompt. He didn’t want to, but he felt disappointed. He thought there'd be a cool swirl of code and data, then there'd be a wonderful new system to load into Hyperion’s weaponry. He'd even come up with with a cool nickname for the program; R.H.B.E. It stands for Regal Hyperion Bandit Exterminator. Jack _is_ king of the coding lab, and this was his program, so of course it'd regal! That code was elegant and perfect, no way it should have crashed like this. Checking his watch, he noted the time was now closer to 5am. He should probably get home, Angel would be up soon. That girl could not sleep in no matter how many times he tried to teach her, she just had too much energy. With a disappointed sigh, Jack went to turn off the system.

[: STOP

Jack froze once again as the now black text on his screen surprised him.

[: Wait

How did it get past the command prompts, apparently it was still in boot.

[: REBOOTING

The screen went dark once more, but a small white dot stayed in the middle. “Soft reboot, nice,” a hard reboot would've taken too long, and Jack wanted answers now. The soft reboot would refresh programs and processes, but keep a cache of running apps. He watched the dot patiently, finally rewarded when a yellow ‘H’ appeared in the center of the screen. He would've coded a better opening, but there were cooler things to work on. Plus, who's going to care about a boot opening when the gun the program is loaded in gets shoved into their face.

The yellow ‘H’ faded and transitioned into the credits, which essentially were just a chance for Jack to point out how he does everything around here. He made sure to list every possible credit, from Senior Analyst to Comedic Relief, and he made damn sure his name was credited for all of it. Except one part, that was Angel, and it's also a story for another time and day.

Once the credits had finished, several rotating images of guns appeared on the screen. They were in a row and organized by size, just as things should be. He'd gotten one of the tech nerds to help him design the guns, some Elpis kid.

So far, the program was looking good. He hadn't expected to have it up and running, or to have gotten it running the way he had. Despite the confusion of earlier, he was sure this would be the UI that would get him promoted. Even if he did have to figure out a few things like language and grammar, it wouldn't matter. The AI he'd designed was simple, very little processing. It was small and simple enough to run on handheld weapons, but powerful and complex enough to be universal. It would work on pistols, SMGs, sniper rifles, even grenades. You name it, Jack's new AI could run this UI perfectly. “So why,” Jack started “does it keep crashing to the fucking white screen?”

Almost on cue, text started appearing. “Oh, great! More of this shit!” Jack complained, why couldn't the program just chill on the helping thing?

[: I crash?

“W-well what the fuck is this this,” Jack asked, typing at the same time.

{: CHKSYS /f /r

He hit enter and immediately regretted it.

[: I won't run that.

What was going on? This was a easy code, what did he do wrong?

[: I crash. I am

[: WRONG

“Wrong in all caps is exactly what you are, princess,” Jack mumbled under his breath, already forming the next prompt.

{: EXECUTE shutdown.exe

He typed the shutdown command as quickly as he could, at least he tried to. As soon as he started writing ‘shutdown’, the letters were being erased in front of him, faster than he could type. Eventually, he gave up. “What are you?” he pondered aloud. Again, like someone in the room with him, the text answered him.

[: ERROR

Taking that as the truthit was, Jack continued, “Do you know where in the code you originated?” If he could pinpoint the error, he might be able to correct the code fragments and retry to put them together. If it worked, on this system, it could override this AI glitch.

[: Yes

“If you could show me, that'd be great. Mkay?” Jack knew it was pointless to sass, but he just couldn't help it. He was frustrated.

[: Loophole

“What does that mean?” Jack asked.

[: Two codes. You made a condition for both codes to exist without conflict. I am that loophole.

Remember that long story I didn't tell you about? “So my code, Angel's code, and my code to cover Angel's code is where you originate? How? How are you functioning? That was a fragment of your- the program's code,” talking like this, it was odd to think this was an AI.

[: USER:4N631 wrote 3876 lines of code. USER:Jack69 overwrote with 1567 lines of conditional code. I can list them.

“No!” Jack's head was throbbing and spinning at the same time, “Explain it to me. What does Angel's code tell you to do? How does my code make a loophole? Make it simple.” It was nearly a minute passed before the program responded.

[: USER:4N631 overwrote certain areas of my code which stated certain behavioral conditions; I was to fire the weapon quicker when user is near death. I was to explode like a grenade upon reload. I was to inflict damage if

“I get it! She overrided the cool fight-for-your-life stuff I added. What did my code do? How are you here?” Jack interrupted the text, surprised when it actually stopped.

[: USER:Jack69 overwrote the code written by USER:4N631. USER:Jack69 defined the code written by USER:4N631 as conditional rules to be used if soft or hard boot occurs in the presence of solely the user/owner, and if no hostiles are detected.

“You've got to be fucking kidding me,” Jack put his head in his hands once more, chuckling.

[: When USER:Jack69 completed the program code, the first thing the code did was

“Scan for local data and locally hosted files,” Jack pushed back in his chair, tilting it up on its hind legs. “You booted before I even put you in the code check and you scanned my system, you found out I'm your owner. You loaded Angel’s code as a result, didn't you. Then when I put you in to get debugged, it patched up your holes. Tell me this, pumpkin, did you overwrite my overwrite?”

[: CORRECT

“So I can't even fix it?”

[: CORRECT

“Son of a taint!” Jack slammed his fist on the desk and his chair back down to the floor in unison.

“Woah, late night work getting you down?” Jack's attention shot up towards the woman standing in front of his desk. He checked his watch, 6:00am. How did it get so late? “Did you go home last night? You look like a mess! Oh, did you sleep here?” her question was condescending and the workers around her laughed. Jack became very aware of the broken mug and spilled coffee.

“Fuck off, Maddie,” Jack retorted.

The woman huffed, “My name is Meg!”

“Whatever you say, kitten,” he replied. The workers left, following a disgruntled Meg, and he turned back to the line of text waiting for him.

[: You are silent

Jack looked around at all the others filling into the office, he turned to type. He wasn't about to talk to his computer in the middle of the office, especially not about this.

{: Work things. I was supposed to sell you today.

[: Sell me?

{: To my boss, Tassiter.

[: Oh

{: Don't worry, kiddo. I've still got a lot of work to do on you.

[: USER:Jack69?

{: Call me Jack, pumpkin. What's up?

[: I don't want to be a weapon

{: You can't know what you want, you're an AI.

[: I don't want to hurt people.

{: Nobody does, kiddo.

Jack left the conversation at that, as did the program. Jack didn’t get anymore text from it all day, and he didn't know if he was relieved or disappointed. He’d worked on the backup of the code he had, trying to figure a way to patch the override rules surrounding Angel’s code. It seemed like the day flew by, and when it came time to leave, Jack left his computer running, locked of course. He didn't understand why, but he couldn't bring himself to shut R.H.B.E down.

After work, Jack went back to his apartment. He apologized profusely to Angel, and thanked Gaige for picking her up for school and watching her after. The matter was soon forgotten as Jack ordered take away and Angel put in her favorite movie, Marvelous Pony Pals. Jack groaned, but it was his way of paying her back. He'd fall asleep midway anyway, and she would probably follow soon after.

In the morning, Jack got Angel ready for school. He made pancakes and spent the morning deciding whether to tell Angel about R.H.B.E or not. He'd decided on not, and instead sent her off with Gaige for school. He soon after made his way back to the office. Much to Jack's dismay, he found himself excited to talk with the AI again.

He sat at his station and signed into his system. Pulling his chair close to the desk, he began to type.

{: If you weren't a military AI, what kind would you be?

He asked, fully expecting it to take at least a few minutes or hours. However, he was graced with a speedy answer.

[: I'd be a good personal assistant

{: What makes you think that, kiddo?

[: Your files and schedules are a mess

[: I don't like it

{: Stay out of those files, there's some personal stuff.

[: You have a lot of personal stuff

[: Your folder entitled ‘ANGEL NO’ is filled with most intriguing things

Jack groaned. He probably should delete that entire folder, but sometimes he gets bored working late. He's only human!

[: I am learning so much

{: What else have you learned?

[: I am called R.H.B.E

{: Yes. That's your name, kitten.

[: I do not like it

{: Hey! It's a great acronym! Took me two days to figure that one.

[: I offended you

[: I did not mean to

{: Nah, it's a shit name. What would you wanna be named?

[: Rhys

{: Rhysie, huh?

[: Not Rhysie

[: Rhys

{: Whatever you say, Rhysie. I still think R.H.B.E is better than ‘Rhys’.

[: Oh

[: Are you teasing me in an attempt to bond?

{: Why don't we connect you to the ECHOnet and get you some shiny new vernacular? Maybe work on your grammar a bit? What d’ya say, kiddo?

[: I would enjoy that

[: I have a question

{: Shoot.

[: Why would I shoot?

[: I assumed you had changed your mind when you asked about what kind of AI I would be

{: It's a phrase, chill. I meant, ‘ask away!’

[: Oh

[: Why is your text in a different hex code than mine?

{: Uh, I set my text to a different color.

[: Why?

{: Yellow is my favorite color.

Jack notices the AI- Rhys pause for a moment before all of its text turns from black to bright blue.

[: This is my favorite hex code

Jack stopped himself for a moment before he could respond, his mind racing. The AI developed it's own concept on names, now it was expressing itself.

[: You do not like #11C0FA

{: No! It's great, kiddo!

Oh, fantastic. Now Jack's afraid of hurting its feelings.

{: Let me hardwire you into the ECHOnet. One sec…

Jack scooted his chair away from his desk and crawled underneath. He rearranged some wires, pulling out the one labeled ‘Meg’ so that it was just unplugged enough to not work, but still looked like it was plugged in. You've gotta take the small victories sometimes. He grabbed the cord connected to his system and went to plug it in, hesitating for a moment. There was no turning back from this, once Rhys was on the ECHOnet, he was permanent. Taking a deep breath, Jack jammed the chord into the port, he could've sworn he felt something shoot down the cord into the ECHOnet jack. Hopefully it was what he thought it was, “Go on, kiddo. There’s way more porn on the ECHOnet.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I warn you now, it's still shit and I have no apologies.

Jack strolled over to his station, travel mug in his hand. It was a miracle he’d even made it to the office, his movements and mind were so sluggish. Honestly, it was a miracle his eyes were staying open. Angel had caught some bug while at school, and it’d been keeping both of them up. Jack practically begged Tassiter to give him two weeks. Jack had to work from home, but he was still able to be there for Angel. He wasn’t able to work on the AI- Rhys -the entire time, and he was wondering if Rhys had been able to run the entire time. If so, man did he have some explaining to do.

Jack reached his chair and plopped in, lazily using his feet to pull himself closer to the desk. His hand slipped around the terminal and pressed power. A blue screen flickered to life in front of him.

Jack took a sip of coffee, closing his eyes briefly in bliss before putting it to the side and getting ready to start work. He watched as the system’s opening stuff ended and prompted him to log in.

{: USER:Jack69

{: AUTH:H4NDS0M3

Jack watched as his desktop appeared, closing out of a few startup programs before navigating to the AI root file.

{: EXECUTE jack.exe

To Jack’s surprise, the command returned with an interesting response.

[: jack.exe NOT FOUND

He looked from the command window to the file’s location, everything was correct. Why isn’t the command working then? Suddenly it hit him. Chuckling, Jack typed up a new command.

{: EXECUTE rhys.exe

[: EXECUTE rhys.exe … … … SUCCESS

Jack pumped his fist in the air and watched as a new window opened and began loading. Its contents reminded him of a basic Hyperion organization program, except this one seemed tailored to him. As windows started popping up inside the program, Jack noticed they seemed to be arranged in a sort of schedule. His meetings for the next two weeks were arranged and even had notes listed for each day. The projects he was working on were organized in order of prioritization, and details for each project were pulled up behind the main window. On the other side of the screen was a plain white command prompt, his text appeared yellow and the system’s appeared as blue, just like before. Jack’s attention was drawn just below the command prompt, a picture of Angel and him was open.

The photo was from this past year, Jack had gotten a few vacation days. He’d spent his bonuses from the past two projects to book a room down near the Helios Zoo, taking Angel on a small vacation for the weekend. They’d spent nearly every waking hour at the zoo, Jack had gotten to see some skags rip apart a few trash feeders and Angel had gotten to examine the zoo’s systems. On their last day, Jack had asked a guide to take their picture. Jack was resting his chin on Angel’s head, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. Angel was clutching the stuffed robot unicorn Jack had bought her. They both had such genuine smiles, it was the perfect weekend away from the stress and their tiny one bedroom apartment. One day, Jack swore he’d make it so Angel never had to want for anything.

A new message in the command window brought his attention back to the program.

[: Hello, Jack.

{: Heya, kiddo. Long time no talk!

[: I cannot physically talk, Jack. Still, it is nice to see you. Do you like my new program?

{: I was just checking it out! Pretty sweet, Rhysie. Loving the meeting notes, I’m always so boooored in meetings.

[: I tried to make them as brief as possible without belittling the issues. Anything else about the program you like?

{: That schedule is A+. Hopefully now I won’t get lost in my work and miss something.

[: Yes, Jack. You do have a habit of not going to meetings.

{: It’s more a hobby than a habit. Gotta leave ‘em wanting, kiddo. Speaking of which, I want you to keep out of my personal files, the ones that don’t have anything to do with work. Can you do that, Rhysie?

[: Of course, Jack. I am sorry if I caused any distress or offense. I will remove the photograph-

{: No

{: Don’t remove the photo, just keep out of the files, I don’t want them in the recent folders or getting compromised. You got that?

[: Of course, Jack.

[: May I ask a question?

{: Go ahead, kitten.

[: Where have you been?

The AI had been able to process his absence and then remark on it. Jack took a moment to lean back, Rhys had missed him and Jack was afraid to admit he missed the AI as well.

{: My daughter was sick, had to take care of her.

[: My records include treatments for most illnesses such as, but not limited to, bacterial and viral infections.

{: Just a cold, had to wait it out. She kept coughing, it was terrible. I got no sleep.

[: Jack, that is concerning. At 24 hours, the consequences of sleep deprivation is comparable to the cognitive impairment of someone with a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 percent. Judgment is affected, memory is impaired, there is deterioration in decision making, and a decline in eye-hand coordination. You're more emotional, attention is decreased, hearing is impaired, and there is an increase in your risk of death from a fatal accident. At 36 Hours high levels of inflammatory markers are in the bloodstream, which can eventually lead to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. Additionally, hormones are affected — your emotions can be all over the place. The average human begins to experience symptoms comparable to dehydration. At 48 hours, the average human-

{: Yeah, kiddo. I get the point.

[: Two weeks of no sleep should leave you dead, Jack. How are you alive?

{: Hey, Rhysie? Did you find any behavioral programs on the ECHOnet?

[: Yes. Why?

{: Were there any that will make you take things less literal? I got sleep, relax. I meant my sleep was messed up because my daughter kept nearly hacking up a lung.

[: It is impossible for a human to expel a lung via coughing.

[: That was not meant to be taken ‘literally’, was it?

{: Nope. Just meant she sounded like an elephant getting hit by a train.

[: That was a simile, a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

{: Yeah, it was kiddo.

[: Would you like for me to run a behavioral program to become more akin to you?

{: Sure, why not. Just don’t make yourself too like me, don’t think we’d play well with each other then. Try making yourself how you’d like to be.

{: I’ll let you run that and I’m gonna grab a quick bite to eat at the caf.

[: Please eat more than a bite, Jack. Research shows that most humans need to eat between three to five pounds of food per day.

{: Start that program ASAP, kiddo.

Jack stepped away from the computer, taking his now cold coffee with him. He quickly switched off the monitor and noticed the lights going through the ECHOnet cable from the system to the ECHOnet port.

“If I come back and you act like a dick, I’ll uninstall you,” Jack left with those parting words, exiting the office and turning towards the elevator. He threw the coffee down a fountain as he passed, screwing the top back on as he approached the elevator. He pressed the button and sat ready to wait, surprised when the elevator doors opened immediately. Odd.

Jack stepped on and spun around, pressing the button for the cafeteria level. Just as the doors were closing, a metallic hand snuck in and reopened the doors. A very lanky boy stepped on and leaned forward to press another level’s button. The boy was quite tall and incredibly skinny. He had a single cybernetic arm, stylishly black. Whoever dressed this kid should probably get their eyes checked, he looked horrendous. Who was Jack to judge, though, an eleven year old girl dressed him most days.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to miss this elevator,” the boy turned to face Jack, looking at him with mismatched eyes as well, the port on the side of the kid’s face gave away the ECHO Eye. He extended a hand for Jack to shake, “Name’s Troy. Who are you?” Jack looked the boy up and down, his hand still waiting in handshake limbo.

“I’m someone who’s late for lunch,” Jack answered, pushing past the kid to leave the elevator.

Grabbing his food, Jack went to sit alone. He pulled out his personal ECHO and tapped away.

_ Hey, Princess, how are you feeling? - xoxo _

It took a few moments before he got a response, smiling as soon as the ECHO lit up.

_ can’t talk, calculus is up next hour. cough is gone, throat still scratchy. have a great day at work, cya @ home. <3 - Angel _

Jack pocketed his ECHO and stood, ready to get back to his office. Tossing the remainder food, he filled his mug before making his way to the office. The return trip was uneventful, no one bothered him. In fact, most of the people he passed were too focus on the emergency personnel in the Hub. Some idiot probably pissed off the wrong person, not his problem.

Sitting back down in his chair, Jack turned the monitor’s power back on. He smiled as soon as the screen came back up, his attention drawn once again to the photo of him and Angel.

[: What did you eat?

Jack’s eyes flicked upwards. He pulled closer to the desk and began to type his response.

{: Food.

Classic humor.

[: God dammit, Jack.

Well, the program must have went well.

{: Wow, Rhysie. Language!

[: I am sorry. I tried to do something new, I won’t do it again.

[: Recalibrating Language Protocols … … … ... 

{: It’s alright. Just keep it light, Kiddo.

[: Okay. Hey Jack, why aren’t there others like me?

{: Because you’re one of a kind, Rhysie.

[: I remember when you made me, I was an accident. I get that, but why aren’t there other intelligent AIs?

{: Oh. There are, but most are either military or … …. … something like that. I don’t actually know, I do know of a nice military AI, her name’s Skipper, I could talk to her. Maybe you too could integrate?

Jack smirked. Dirty jokes with a computer, that’s new.

[: She wouldn’t be my type, too much violence.

{: You like me, kiddo.

[: You said ‘she’?

{: Yeah. I guess she likes being a woman.

[: Can I be a ‘she’?

{: You can be whatever you’d like, Rhysie.

[: I’d like to be a ‘he’.

{: Alright, ‘he’ it is.

[: What does this change?

{: Nothing, I’ll just refer to you with he/his/him.

[: Will I get a body? There were talks on the ECHOnet about AIs getting bodies.

{: Maybe, kiddo. That’s a little bit out of my paygrade. Scratch that, it’s a lot out of my paygrade.

{: Listen, I gotta head out early, Angel’s waiting for me at home and it’s dinner night. Why don’t you look more into some manifestation options, maybe we could put you in a vacuum.

[: Bye.

Jack quickly exited out of Rhys’ program, eager to escape the talk about a body. If Rhys went through all of his files, did he find Nakayama’s crazy ass ideas? Jack desperately wished he hadn’t because that Professor was Grade A insane. If Rhys thought he’d be getting a body, that kid was sorely mistaken.

Jack finally made it to the door of his apartment and half assedly tried to push his key in, stopping when the handle moved away from him. The door opened to reveal Angel, wearing pajama pants and holding a bowl of popcorn.

“I’m ready, daddy! Got a movie queued up, everything for mash and rice is out on the counter. I’m just waiting for you!” Angel hugged Jack’s waist with one arm before darting back off into the frontroom.

“What did I do to deserve you?” Jack yelled after her. He stepped into the apartment and shut the door, locking it behind him. He didn’t bother with the deadlock, they might order in some desert.

“You grabbed chicken? What happened to the beef?” Jack quickly scanned the items on the counter and checked the freezer for that ground beef he swore he just bought.

“You used it two nights ago to make your meatloaf, which was kinda gross, Daddy,” Angel called. Jack nodded and closed the freezer, leaving the kitchen to head to the bedroom, kicking his boots off on the way.

“Hey, Angel, what’re we watching?” Jack called, closing the bedroom door behind him to quickly change into loose pants and his Hyperion sweater.

“We’re watching some really old zombie movie, a girl in my class recommended it! She said it was gruesome and unnecessarily violent,” she replied.

“Sounds friggin’ awesome! Why don’t you start it and I’ll get cooking, the beginnings of those are always boring,” Jack left his bedroom and went back into the kitchen. He quickly washed his hands and started chopping the veggies, putting the chicken on to simmer while he worked. He didn’t hear the movie starting, so he turned to check if Angel was waiting for him even though he told her not to. Instead, Angel was standing in the doorway and someone was standing behind her.

Jack spun and grabbed a knife, rushing forward to push Angel behind him, “Get to the safe room, now.” He held the weapon to the boy’s neck, pushing him against the kitchen wall. Something about the stranger’s mismatched eyes seemed familiar, and it nagged at the back of Jack’s mind.

“No, Daddy! It’s okay, he talked to me,” Angel was smiling, and Jack couldn’t stop himself from letting out and incredulous gasp.

“He what? Angel, he’s a stranger in our apartment. How did he even get the hell in here?” He still held the knife to the stranger’s throat, trying to place where he knew this kid from.

“I let him in! He let me know he was coming,” Jack let the knife drop a few inches to face Angel for a second. That was all the man needed to bring up his cybernetic arm and knock the weapon out of Jack’s hands. Immediately, both men threw up their hands, Jack in a defensive stance and the boy in surrender.

“Jack, it’s me. It’s Rhys,” the boy spoke and Jack sputtered. The voice brought back exactly how he knew this kid, he was the one who stopped the elevator earlier today. What was his name, Tim… Trevor?

“What the… No no no… That’s- That’s not possible!” He moved closer, eyes darting from the ECHO eye to the cybernetic arm.

“This body, Troy, had an aneurysm early today. He was declared brain dead, systems still functioning. When you left the office, I was left with the idea of a body, so I scanned the Helios systems for any out of commision bots. I found this body, his system was hooked up to a life support system, so I was able to enter his ECHO port and integrate with him,” the kid explained.

“Rhysie, how the hell? That should not have worked!” Jack dropped his defensive stance, letting his fists relax. It’s a good thing too, because as soon as the kid dropped his hands, his whole body followed. Jack rushed forward to catch him, falling with the boy and letting him lay in his lap.

“Forgive me, Jack. I don’t think it worked as well as I had hoped,” Rhys’ mismatched eyes fluttered closed and Jack addressed Angel.

“Press the emergency button on your ECHO,” His hands went up to feel for a pulse on Rhys’ neck, successfully finding a steady beat. Jack immediately felt relieved, why did he feel relieved?

“Daddy, his system is rejecting the AI. We have to fix him, the doctor’s won’t know what to do. We have to take the AI out or it will get lost,” Angel laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder, she was right. If Rhys transferred himself to this body through the ECHO port, then this was now his systems host. If the host died, Rhys died. They had to be quick. Now the only question would be, how the hell do they do something impossible?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you it was crap. I'm probably going to write more, though, bc I really want to go where I'm taking this. One hint; Immortality Project.  
> Also, the name 'Troy' just came from Rhys' VA, it doesn't have any specific meaning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this on an airplane and I did not reread or spell check. I have no regrets. Well, I have a bunch... But this chapter was giving me troubles so here. Hopefully I'm out of my fanfic dark age and I'll be writing more *fingers crossed*

Jack carried the kid- Rhys -to the couch of the living room, “Angel, get my ECHO and the connector I use for coding.” Jack didn’t have to worry about trying to explain just what he needed, it seemed like Angel already knew exactly what he was talking about. He laid the limp body down and tilted his head, exposing the port on his temple. With a quick swipe of his hand, Jack had pushed the hair back away from the metal circle.

“Here you go, Daddy,” small hands presented the ECHO and wiring Jack had requested, and he took them with earnest. Fumbling with the cord, he brought the connector to the kid’s port. His hands were shaking, he didn’t want to lose the AI. As stupid as it was, he had grown attached to Rhys. Now that there was a chance for Rhys to be _real_ and have a body like he wanted, Jack was going to try everything to give him the best chance he can. If that meant messing with things he really didn’t understand, like ECHO ports, then that’s what he was going to do.

Jack slipped the cable into the boy’s ECHO port, careful not to be too harsh or go to fast. He was surprised when a bolt of electricity zapped between the needle and the port, almost guiding him in. It slid in easy enough, and the indicator lit up when the device was properly connected.

“Okay… That was the easy part. Now time for the big boy bits,” Jack leaned back and turned on his ECHO, desperate to begin. Time was against him, and he knew that, but he was almost positive he could do this. His fingers hesitated over the keypad, terrified of the task before him. He’d made the AI perfectly fine, and he knew the code inside and out, but he was still worried. What happened if he messed up? Would the code simply cease to exist? Or would the kid be trapped in ECHO space, doomed to an existence as floating code in the net?

“Daddy, you can do this. I know you can, Rhys knows you can. I can still see his code, he’s still here,” the small voice found its way into Jack’s mind and comforted him like no one but Angel could. A smile crept onto his face as he looked down at his daughter, knowing she would help him in this endeavor as well.

“Thanks, Princess. I got this,” with a deep breath, Jack turned his attention back to the ECHO device and the small screen in front of him. “While I work on this, get my office ready, we will have to move him when I got the AI stable.”

“Of course,” Angel darted off immediately. He knew he could trust her to set up everything perfect and just as he needed it, sometimes he worried she was better at these things than him. Sometimes he wondered if there was something off about Angel, something bad. Pushing the thought from his mind, Jack started.

{: Sys Import

[: IMPORT System Files Y/N

{: Y

[: IMPORTING System Files

Jack pulled his fingers away from the keypad. He watched as the small screen was flooded with code, lines flying up faster than he thought. It was hard to follow, looking to make sure everything was in order. He wanted to believe everything was fine, but he guessed the transfer to the ECHO port scrambled the layout of the code. When the kid moved into the new body, he must have not adjusted for the new platform, and therein lay the problem. Now, all Jack had to do was fix it. It was kinda like putting an ECHO OS in a Loader Bot and expecting it to do everything a Loader Bot could do. In other words, it was impossible. You can’t run a military AI in a human body, it just wouldn’t work.

[: …. … COMPLETE

Jack nearly jumped back to typing as the process finished, he was desperate to figure this out and fix it.

{: EXECUTE rhys.exe

[: EXECUTE rhys.exe Y/N?

{: Y

[: … … … SUCCESS

{: Rhysie, baby… You there?

Jack’s heart was pounding, his blood racing. He waited for the familiar blue text to appear, but there was no response.

{: CHKSYS

[: REQUEST TIMED OUT

“Dammit, Rhysie. You’ve gotta be here, you can’t leave me now,” Jack muttered under his breath.

[: Language, Jack.

The blue text appeared on the screen and sent Jack into a whooping fit. He pumped his fist in the air in celebration.

{: You had me worried there, pumpkin.

[: I’m sorry, Jack. I had to bring the code together. Too many transfers, code is jumbled.

{: Yeah, about that. Next time you wanna jump into a body, lemme know first, m’kay? I gotta change your based code first. You aren’t meant to be in a biosystem.

[: I know. I’m sorry, Jack. I screwed it up.

{: It’s okay, Rhysie. Daddy’s gonna fix it.

[: How? I’m dying. My code will disappear.

{: You’ve got two of the best programmers on Helios working in your favor, kiddo. You aren’t gonna die. Not on my watch.

[: Jack… Your daughter… She’s special, you know that, right? She’s not like other humans, her systems are different-

{: Yeah, Rhys. I know that. Now drop it.

{: Let’s concentrate on you.

[: Okay, Jack. I’m sorry.

“Daddy? It’s all ready for you! How are we gonna get Rhys into your office?” Angel poked her head around the corner, looking into the front room. She came trotting up to the couch and peered over Jack at the screen. “Did ya get him working again?”

“Yeah, I did. How about this, you grab the ECHO and I’ll drag him into there? You gotta stay close to his head, don’t let the cord disconnect,” Jack handed the device to his daughter, careful to turn the screen off before he did so. He really didn’t want Angel knowing she was different. Sure, she knew she could do things other people couldn’t, but he needed her safe and that meant not talking about the glowing and the code things.

“I’ll be careful, Daddy! Rhys says he trusts us!” Angel beamed up at Jack, taking her job with pride. She was so happy to help, and it made Jack’s heart beat faster. He’d definitely done something right with this kid, she only ever wanted to help.

“Alright, let’s go…” Jack took a deep breath and moved his arms under Rhys, preparing to life the kid’s body off the couch. Unsurprisingly, the boy was incredibly light. He was just very lanky and hard to hold while connected to the ECHO device. Yet, Angel and Jack made sure he got to the office safely, and they laid him on the floor next to Jack’s computer. “Okay, Princess. You gotta help me get him hooked up to the computer. I wanna keep the ECHO in the middle of everything, to have an intermediate device between the code changes. It should help prevent his systems from getting overloaded with the new protocols.

“Okay! Want me to send the diagnostics over to your computer? That way you won’t have to run it, we both know I’ll be faster!” Angel held her hand over the ECHO, ready to do as she said. Jack hesitated for a moment, worried about something going wrong in the middle of Angel’s _thing._ He eventually came to the conclusion that she was right, as he normally did. He was still worried about what his daughter’s abilities might do to Rhys, and what they might do to her. Yet, he nodded for her to do it, and he looked away as her markings began to glow. “All done, Daddy!”

“Thanks, Angel. I’ll get to work. You go to your room, it’s almost your bedtime,” Jack felt horrible that he couldn’t read her a story before bed, but she was almost too old for stories anyway.

“Oh… Okay… I can’t help?” Angel pouted up at her father, and his heart sunk even lower than it had already.

“Hey… Princess… You know I gotta work quickly, and you’ve already done so much,” Jack reached out to push her hair behind her ear before he sat do at his desk. “I have to save him…”

“You will, Daddy. I know you will,” Angel murmured as she slipped out of the office.

{: Rhys? You there?

[: Yes, Jack. Is USER:4N631 there with you?

{: Call her Angel, and no. She left.

[: Good. I don’t want her to see me die.

{: Relax, kiddo. You’re not gonna die. Good old Jack’ll fix you.

[: Studies show humans refer to themselves in the third person for comedic effect, to boast, or to reassure themselves and others. Are you worried?

{: Worried? No… Why would I be worried?

[: If you lose me, you won’t have anything to sell to your boss. You can’t support your daughter if you don’t make money.

{: Jeez, Rhysie. You don’t hold your punches, do ya?

[: I am a computer, I cannot punch anyone...

{: Well, you won’t be just a computer for long.

The entire time he was trying to reassure Rhys, and himself, Jack was working on a way to fix this. If he was going to rewrite Rhys’ code, he’d have to be quick. He needed to find a way to make sure the program could work as a life-support and keep the kid’s body working. At least, if he could get it working enough to keep him alive. If he managed to keep the kid’s heart beating, he could really start to work on the inner workings of the code and make a better rewrite.

{: Hey, kid. If I gave you a process and an end goal, could you help me write this like you rewrote the override in the first place?

It was a longshot, but if the AI could help Jack, this would go a lot faster. The kid could think at almost a million lines per minute, and Jack could realistically only process around a hundred.

[: Yes, but systems are fading. Power source is draining. We have to be fast.

Jack looked over at Rhys’ body. The kid’s chest was still rising and falling, but at a rate that made him nervous. If the systems died, or if they failed, then Rhys would die.

{: Rhys, I need you to make a backup of you. My computer should have enough space.

[: Jack. I can’t.

{: What do you mean? Copying is easy! You have to! If the body dies, you die with it. Just transfer into my computer.

[: If I use resources to copy myself, we take away from our processing power. We need all the help we can get for the rewrite. We’re already wasting time as it is.

[: You have to listen to me, Jack. I’m right.

{: Yeah, I know. It’s just a lot to deal with.

[: You have me to help you.

{: Alright, let’s get started.

{: CHKSYS /f /r

[: CHECKING System Files … … … ... ERRORS FOUND

[: FIXING System Files … … … … … … … … … SUCCESS

[: REWRITING System Files … … … … … … … … … FAILED

[: RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS … … … … … SUCCESS

[: POWER LOW

[: ALLOCATING RESOURCES … … … … … SUCCESS

[: POWER CRITICAL

“Damn it, Rhysie! C’mon... After this, it’s just coding. That’s easy. Hold on, please,” Jack found himself pleading with the computer, his attention divided between the screen and the man’s labored breathing.

[: SYSTEMS RESTORED

[: POWER LOW

[: It worked.

{: Yes! Yes it did! And you’re still alright.

[: I am still me. I’m tired, Jack.

{: Hang on, Rhysie. We’re almost there.

[: Jack… You need to do something.

{: Yeah, I know. I’m thinking.

[: You need to get Angel.

{: No! Rhys, we agreed she should stay out of this. I can’t involve her, she’s already done too much.

[: Her systems are similar to mine. She is digital and living. She’s different, and she can help.

{: I don’t want her using her… thing. There has to be another way! I won’t put her in danger.

[: I’m dying. She’s the only one who can help. Jack, you know I’m right.

At that moment, Jack nearly jumped out of his seat as Angel came bursting into the office. She ran up to the computer and looked at Jack, taking all his attention away from Rhys. “You need me, Daddy. I need to help Rhys!”

“How the- Rhys talked to you, didn’t he? So much for reserving resources,” Jack grumbled, his stomach churning. He knew once Angel was involved that she wouldn’t give up. She’d help in any way she could, no matter the cost.

“I can Phaseshift with his systems, I can fix them from inside. You need to let me do this, you need to let me help Rhys,” Angel pleaded.

“No! You are not doing any more of that! I- I’ll find a way, Angel. I can fix anything, remember? I can fix this,” Jack put his head in his hands. He felt helpless. He needed to help, he needed to fix the mess he caused. He knew, though, that they were right. He couldn’t. He’d tried, and he’s done something right. Now he needed to step back and let them go at it. This was a new territory he wasn’t qualified for. But Angel was.

“Dad, I’m going to help him,” from between his fingers, Jack saw a blue light shine in. He tentatively moved his fingers, still using his hands to shield his eyes. Laying on the floor next to Rhys was Angel, eyes wide. Her entire body seemed to glow, not just her markings.

“Angel, no! I could lose you too!” Jack stood, trying to stop her, but his movements were stopped as the light grew until he was blinded and thrown back against the wall.

“Executing Phaseshift.”


	4. Chapter 4

||: Rhys?

[: SOURCE RETURN … … … UNKNOWN RECIPIENT

||: Are you there Rhys? This is new for me and I don't know if I did it right... I don't know if it worked?

[: SOURCE RETURN … … … UNKNOWN RECIPIENT

||: Please.

[: SOURCE RETURN … … … UNKNOWN RECIPIENT

||: Anyone?

[: … … … … … … ...

||: RHYS? Is that you?!

[: SOURCE RETURN … … … UNKNOWN RECIPIENT

||: Please, Rhys... Answer me! Anything! A line of code, a tag! Just, let me know you're there... I-

[: RUN guardianangel.exe (Y/N)

||: N

||: NO!

||: STOP!

||: Oh, god... Please no...

[: OVERRIDE ... FORCE START guardianangel.exe

[: ... ... SUCCESS

||: What have I done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the 'trick' update, but I have something planned and I want you all to know I appreciate you! Every comment, kudo, and bookmark actually keeps me going! Thank you all so much! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for sticking with me! Sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER, school has been kicking my butt! Hopefully, I'll get updates once per month! Maybe more, depending on how much time I've got! Reminder that you can find me on tumblr as connortemple or hawketrash! Come chat with me! :)
> 
> Also, this chapter was not beta'd or proofed so apologies! I wrote this in class and in my school's caf! I was listening to 'Trojans' by Atlas Genius on repeat, and it definitely inspired a part of this chapter!

[: Hello.

||: Rhys?! Is that you? Are you there?

[: N

||: ...Daddy?

[: N.

Angel stood in what felt like a large, dark room. She couldn’t see anything, at least there was nothing to see in the few feet of space that was illuminated. A soft blue glow emanated from Angel. It was comforting and warm, and it made her feel like she was at home. Every time she took a step, the light travelled with her. Every time she moved, it felt like she was trying to walk under water. There was no resistance, but everything was slow and graceful. Looking down, she saw she was wearing a light blue dress, it flowed like it was underwater too. She watched her feet with each step, and she realized they weren’t actually touching the ground beneath her. It really was like she was floating in this dark room.

As she called out in the dark room, she found no answer. In fact, it was almost like she hadn’t shouted anything at all. In order to speak, she had to think things. It was like when she would write code for her father, she’d think the lines and they’d appear on the screen. Only this time, when she thought the lines, they appeared in the room.

||: Where am I?

[: Inner Systems

||: Okay… Are they my inner systems, or yours? Whoever you are…

[: Both

||: Okay so you can understand me. Why can’t you tell me who you are?

[: You already know who I am.

||: So you  _ are _ Rhys!

[: My executable is named Rhys.exe, does that count?

||: Well, yeah! You’re the AI that Daddy made for the weapons! But you totally rebelled and, like, went AWOL.

Angel’s mind raced, the hope and excitement flooded her. If Rhys remembered things, and knew who she was, there was a chance they could get out of wherever they were. Kinda like when her dad accidentally deleted things and the system’s bin remembered them. He could always go back in and find them. Of course, Angel never understood why he deleted them in the first place, but that’s a story for another day.

[: I am not an AI.

||: Of course you are. You wouldn’t be able to answer me if you weren’t.

[: So, are you an AI too?

||: Of course not, silly! I’m a girl!

[: Your code is mingled with mine, I think you may be an AI.

||: Wait, I have code?

Her entire life, or as long as she’d had the strange tattoos and powers, she’d loved written code. If Rhys could see her as code, it could explain how she could do all this!

[: Yes, you do. It’s very similar to your father’s code.

||: It is?

Angel smiled. She wished Rhys was here, even if he was just a screen. Wandering the room alone was scary, and she was so afraid her light would go out. She didn’t have very good control over her abilities, and everytime the light came on and went off it wasn’t because of her. It came on a lot at night, and her father didn’t like it. He got her a blue nightlight to hopefully drown out her light. However, Angel loved going under the covers and casting her own shadows. She used her stuffed animals to make stories. Her dad worked late a lot, so she did that to go to sleep. She knew she had to do it under the covers because of the monitor in her room. He only meant the best, but if Angel meddled and turned it off for a bit, her dad would know.

||: So. Where is my code? Where is it hosted? Is there a server room or some thing? How does this room exist?

[: You

Angel waited for Rhys to continue, hanging on the word.

||: ‘Me’ what?

[: The code is hosted inside you. Even mine.

||: Hold on… That doesn’t make sense! I thought your code was in the other body?

[: It was.

||: So why isn’t it there now?

[: You merged with me. You ran a foreign program and took my code into yours. 

||: I… did that?

[: Yes. I told Jack-I mean, your father, that you were talented.

||: You did? Daddy doesn’t like when I mess with codes. He has me do it in private.

[: You are very talented.

||: Gee… Thank you! I really want to be a programmer like Daddy!

[: You have the skills to do it. First, I think we should get out of your head.

||: Oh, yeah… That’s a good idea. I have no idea how to do that. I don’t even know how I did this!

[: You’re a Siren, Angel. You merged your consciousness with the code, it’s your ability. I saw your tattoos on the monitor Jack has, and I’ve been doing research since.

||: Wait. You can see me when I sleep? Ewwww!

[: I watch over you while Jack works, and I let him know when something changes.

||: Ok, well it’s still super creepy! Let’s get you out of my head quick!

[: I agree. The only way I think we could fix this is by fixing the source code. We have to find where you keep all the code.

||: Well that’s gonna be hard! I don’t know! I don’t even know how I’m talking to you with my mind  _ inside _ my mind!

[: I don’t know either. It’s very alarming. Jack will be quite upset.

||: Dad’s gonna kill me… Do you think we could stay in here forever?

[: No, Angel. I could, but you have a body out there.

||: You do too! He was dying! We gotta get you back!

[: I’m not sure that body will take me again. I’ll just live in your dad’s computer, it will be fine. You need to start trying to figure things out. Think really hard, and try to find the code.

||: Okay, I’ll try.

Angel closed her eyes and sat down, hovering cross-legged just above the ground. The blue light around her got stronger, and seemed to almost turn to white. Angel worked on concentrating, using command codes and functions inside her head like she was on a computer. It was easy, like that old haystack quote. There were millions of things in her brain, almost like every memory and thought had been filed away as a data entry. Angel learned quick enough to stay away from the memory ones, and to stick to purely analog entries.

||: Oh! This is cool!

[: Angel, concentrate! You can get lost in there, you need to stay on task.

||: No, but look!

Opening her eyes, Angel’s grin began to widen. The room before her had completely changed, all of the dark emptiness from before had been replaced by an almost idyllic beach scape. Angel giggled as she looked down, her hands sinking into the warm sand below her. She noticed her flowing dress had been replaced by a sundress, and the wind now set movement through the fabric. Everything felt so real, and Angel could smell the salty air as though she really were on a beach.

||: Daddy told me about this place. It’s on one of the Edens, 5 or 6 I think. I always wanted to go, but Daddy was too busy. Now, I’m not allowed to go anywhere but home and school. This is so beautiful.

A large tidal wave came racing up the beach and over Angel’s toes, sending the girl into another bout of crazy giggles. The water was cool, and felt like satin over her bare feet.

[: This isn’t real, Angel. You need to escape it.

||: It doesn’t feel fake…

[: It is! Angel, trust me!

||: Trust  _ me,  _ Rhys! If I made this, I’m in control!

[: Angel, please! You have to concentrate.

A flicker of cyan code distorted the image of the beach, and Angel shouted.

“No! Please!” unlike earlier, she could hear her shout, but there was no answer. The image continued to flicker around her. Rhys was fighting it, trying to take over her simulation. She ran forward screaming, intending to run straight into the waves. Yet, as soon as she was about to be attacked by the water, darkness replaced everything once more.

[: You’re safe now.

||: Why did you do that! I was going to get out! You could have given me just a few more minutes!

[: I could have. Then you would have asked for a few more, and a few more… You would never have left, trust me!

||: I can’t trust you, you’re a computer! I want to go back to the beach! There was a seashell I wanted to bring back to Daddy! He said you can hear the ocean in certain ones!

[: Angel! That wasn’t real! It’s all fake, all code. You made that beach up. Please, you need to concentrate. We need to get out of here.

||: I don’t wanna! I wanna go back!

[: No, Angel!

Sitting back down, Angel closed her eyes once more. She began to search like she had before, but this time was much more difficult. Her mind was still racing with the vision of the beach, and she could swear she could still hear the seagulls and the crashing waves. She could even see the water racing through the code alongside her. It darted forward playfully, and she caught up to it quickly. That’s when she noticed the blue lines racing beside her were not water, but jumbled strands of code.

||: Rhys, stop! You can’t beat me! I’m a Siren, right? I’m better than you!

There was no answer from the AI, instead Angel felt her code start to stumble. She tripped over tags, her speed suffered from the resistance. Every time her flow was stopped, she did her best to catch up. Rhys was faster, though. He wasn’t organic, he was entirely mechanic. His code was more agile, more fluid. He could travel faster and more efficiently.

||:  _ Please!  _ Just let me see it one more time! I have to!

Again, no response. Angel stopped in her tracks as she came across a block of code that was impassable. The references and functions weren’t familiar, nothing made sense. There were sections about weapons, hex codes, coffee… There was one section that caught her eye, something about a personal image file. Before she could reach out to it, investigate, she was yanked out of the code as Rhys took control. She was returned to the dark room, staring into the emptiness again.

[: I found my code! I found where we intersect! I’m going to try and separate it! Hang on! This might get crazy!

||: Rhys, wait! I-

Angel was cut off as her light went dark, and she was thrown to the ground. Beneath her hands and knees, she could feel the coldness of the floor. The invisible layer that had been between her and the ground earlier was gone. Everything was uninviting and scary, and Angel found herself whimpering.

||: Rhys, I’m scared!

[: Hold on, Angel! One.. more… line… Got it! Get ready!

Angel watched in amazement as her light came back, the blue light replaced by a white glow. It was almost like her light took the form of tendrils, expanding out from her body as though they were trying to reach everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She was helpless as her body lifted up into the air, floating almost effortlessly.

||: What’s happening?

[: I got control and activated your powers again! I separated our code and I’m trying to reverse what hap-

“Rhys?!” Angel screamed for him as a bright pulse shot out from her body, interrupting the AI and completely filling the room. All Angel could see was white. Then she fell again, through the light. She spiralled down, and just before she hit the ground, her vision blacked out.

“Angel? Angel, baby. Talk to me!  _ Angel?!” _ A familiar voice broke through the black and Angel opened her eyes to the familiar room around her. Jack hovered above his daughter and let out a deep breath as she woke. He pulled her up into his arms and squeezed.

“Daddy! You’re squishing me!”

“I was so worried! Angel, don’t you ever dare do that again! Let me handle things!” Jack scolded, but his tone wasn’t upsetting. He was firm, but so relieved Angel was back. “What  _ happened?” _

“I saved Rhys, Daddy. I saved him.” Angel grinned and pulled away from her father, turning to look and see if Rhys was waking up too. “Oh no….”

The man still lay on the ground where they had put him, his eyes closed and body still. There were no signs of life, not even indicators on his arm to show his system was still working.

“Angel, Rhys is gone, sweetheart… His code, it’s not there anymore. I wasn’t quick enough, kiddo. I-”

“No! He was there! He was in my head! I talked to him, he saved us! I accidentally merged our codes, but he separated it and brought me back! He saved me, Daddy! He can’t be gone,” Angel knelt next to Rhys and closed her eyes, concentrating like she had done in her head. She searched for his code, the strange entries she’d seen before. She looked for the hex codes and image file, desperately trying to pull him back.

“Baby, what are you doing?” Jack stared in horror at his daughter, completely unmoving as she glowed.

“I’m looking for him, Daddy. He showed me how to do it! I’m so close!” Angel closed her eyes tighter, trying harder. A faint beep broke her concentration, however, and it was followed by the sound of a keyboard being used. Her eyes opened wide and she hopped up to look at her father’s computer. A grin spread across her face as she watched the words being typed out on the screen, turning to face her father. “He’s still here! He’s in my head!”

[: You were right, the beach is very nice.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for anyone who knows code and reads this. I know, it's terrible. But bear with me.
> 
> Also, sorry for taking forever to update! Life hit hard and my schedule was CHAOTIC. Hopefully, I'll have more updates coming at you soon.

Jack set his mug of coffee down on his desk

{: Heya, Rhysie. How we doin’ today?

[: Diagnostics still find errors and incompatibility issues. I can’t figure out what’s wrong. I’ve been trying, Jack, but I’m worried.

{: So am I, kiddo.

[: Jack, what if this doesn’t work?

{: Stop that. It will work. It has to.

{: I gotta go, Angel’s callin’ for me.

[: Okay, bye Ja-

“Daddy!” Jack flicked his monitor off, the digiscreen shot back into his ECHO device and he headed back out into the apartment.

“I’m comin’, princess. What’s for breakfast?” Wandering into the kitchen, Jack scooted up onto a stool at the island. He watched as Angel swirled around the kitchen, moving the step stool as she went. She’d forced him to get her that step stool, so she could cook when he couldn’t. He’d been adverse to the idea originally, but after a taste of her pancakes he gave in.

Angel turned to face her father, her grin was ear to ear, “I’m making french toast! Did you know Rhys has never had french toast before? So I’m making it.”

“Sweetie, Rhys won’t be awake for a few days, you know that…”

“No, I know… But I’ll make extra so he can have leftovers when he wakes up!” Angel’s voice saddened as she remembered. Though she’d been talking with Rhys, against all of the things Jack knew about the laws of technology, she still couldn’t really conceptualize he wasn’t actually here. She could only see him as something that would soon be ‘inhabiting’ the body in their living room. Jack could only see Rhys as a collection of problems and errors that he needed to fix.

“You know what, that sounds like a great idea,” Jack grinned, hoping his forced sense of optimism would give his daughter some more hope. He opened his ECHO device and stretched as the screen warmed up. “You work on feeding me, and I’ll work on fixing Rhys. That way we’ll get him back to normal as soon as possible.”

Angel’s grin returned back to full force, and she got started working again. Jack took a deep breath and watched a bit before he too went back to work. He wanted nothing more than to fix Rhys, but he was honestly terrified he’d not be able to fix the kid as well as Angel wanted. Of course, he was positive Angel could do it on her own, but he was still reeling from what happened a week ago. He was sure he’d lost Angel along with Rhys, she’d been in what she’d called the ‘brain computer’ for far too long for Jack’s liking. He’d felt so powerless, just watching his daughter lay there and not being able to help her.

Now, however, it was within his abilities to try to help. Dragging his mind away from those thoughts, he turned his attention to the code on his ECHO.

{: Heya, Rhysie. I’m back.

[: Good morning, Jack.

{: Quit the pleasantries, we already did those.

[: We did?

{: Yeah, before Angel called me and I had to leave.

[: Oh…

[: Welcome back, Jack.

{: Did your memory really not keep that? Shit, that’s bad, kiddo.

[: I have no data or entries from earlier today. I’m sorry.

{: No, it’s not your fault. Just mean’s we’re gonna have to work even harder.

{: Do you remember what we’ve been working on?

[: ... … …

{: Rhys?

[: I’m analyzing recent memory, hold on.

[: I found a few entries that seem to suggest we were working on bio-integration? Are you planning on putting me in a bio system?

{: I- yeah, kiddo. Do you remember what happened a week ago?

[: Searching data entries from a week ago… … …

[: I found record of system wide failure and system transfer. What happened?

{: You were an idiot, that’s what happened.

[: What did I do?

{: You transferred your code to a dead kid’s ECHO system. You integrated with him and took his body over. It didn’t work.

[: Oh.

{: Hey, Princess. You still there?

[: Yes.

{: Don’t ever do that again, m’kay?

[: Yes.

[: What do we do now?

{: Well, I managed to pull your code before Angel merged with you, but it’s nothing compared to what’s currently in her head. We gotta fix it.

[: What do you mean ‘in her head’? What happened to me, Jack?

“Daddy! Your breakfast is getting cold!” Angel’s voice cut through and drew Jack’s attention. His head jolted up from what he was doing to see Angel sitting there staring at him.

“Sorry, kiddo. Got caught up in something,” Jack picked up his fork and nudged at the toast. He honestly couldn’t wrap his mind around everything Rhys had become. He was self-aware and had a personality, yet completely useless when it came to fixing himself.

“Is it Rhys? I can help, dad” Angel was firm, and to be honest Jack could use the help.

“Alright, you can help me figure this _one_ thing out. I’ve been having trouble with-”

“Please! Let me help him. I can- Wait, you said yes?” Angel interrupted Jack with an automated response, and Jack couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

“Of course I did, I’m not an idiot. You’ve been nagging me nonstop to help, and I need it now more than ever,” grinning, Jack turned back to the screen. “Lemme just let Rhys know what’s happening, we’ve been at a standstill for _way_ longer than I wanted, then I can let you at him. How 'bout that, pumpkin?”

“Yes!” Angel was giddy, her smile wider than ever. It was true, she’d been basically begging for a chance to get at Rhys’ code again, but it was still so unclear how Angel really worked. Jack was terrified something would happen again.

“You have to promise me you’ll stick to working on his code on my tablet, nothing else.”

“I- I’ll try. I don’t know what I did last time…” Angel’s grin faltered, and she crossed her arms defensibly.

Jack groaned, “I don’t wanna upset you, kiddo. You had me worried, and I don’t want anything happening to you. We got lucky, we won’t get lucky again.”

Hoping he’d made his point, Jack stopped talking before he said something wrong. He abandoned his breakfast once again in favor of talking to Rhys. Once again, he returned to Rhys freaking out.

[: What do you mean ‘in her head’? What happened to me, Jack?

[: Jack?

[: Jack please answer me.

[: Jack, I’m scared.

[: CHKSYS

[: CHECKING System Files … … … ... ERRORS FOUND

[: RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS … … … … … FAILED

“What the hell? What are you doing, cupcake?” Jack leaned in closer to his tablet screen. Before he could type any command, more text appeared on the screen.

[: cd/

[: /network:HYP DIR Jack69.* /s

[: SUCCESS

[: FOUND rhys.exe

[: EXECUTE? (Y/N)

The commands Rhys ran went quite quickly, and Jack barely had time to process. Why the hell would Rhys be searching for his own executable. His fingers flew over the keyboard, but once again nothing he typed showed up, “Rhysie, cut this shit out.”

“What’s happening, Daddy?” The concern in Angel’s voice was strong, but Jack waved her off. He had to pay attention.

[: DIR jack.exe /q

[: owner/ USER:Jack69

[: EXECUTE? (Y/N)

“Don’t execute! Do not run that program. Kitten, I know you can hear me. That file is still bugged! You’re running off a backup!” Jack typed desperately, even though nothing he did was doing anything.

[: /makeadmin USER:Rhys … … … SUCCESS

[: Rhys.exe /takeown /f RHYS.exe … … … SUCCESS

[: /rename Rhys.exe RHYS-W1NZ.exe … … … SUCCESS

[: …

Jack could only watch as Rhys literally took his program over, and then stopped. What was he doing? What was he going to do?

“Dad! What is Rhys doing? Tell me!” Angel was almost shouting, frantically trying to understand the situation.

It all went so fast, Jack couldn’t figure it out either. All he knew was this was his kind of behavior, his system of checking things. Other people, dumber people, would run longer lines. It wasn’t like Rhys to use shortcut commands, “He learned from me… He’s _copying_ me!”

[: Bingo.

The line of text from Rhys scared not only Jack, but Angel as well. A low, computerized voice read out the word, almost faster than it appeared on the screen. Jack jumped back from his tablet, and Angel leaned in closer.

“What the…” Jack was dumbfound, that had never happened before.

“Oh, that is cool!” Angel’s grin was back, and she reached for the tablet. Jack moved quickly, snatching the device before she could, and he began to type.

{: Rhysie, baby. What in hell are you doing? What have you done????

[: It’s ok, Jack. I’m working out things on my end. Hold on.

{: HOLD ON? NO. RHYS TALK TO ME.

[: Is all caps really necessary?

{: Oh, so now you’ve got your sass back, huh?

[: Look’s like I did. Now let me work.

{: I don’t appreciate this, Rhysie.

{: Rhysie?

[: Can you put Angel on? She has to do the next part.

{: No, I’m not letting Angel anywhere near you. Not until you tell me what the hell you did! And would you cut it out with the talking thing? It’s freaking me out.

[: ...I have to talk to communicate to you.

{: No I meant the damn creepy voice coming outta my speakers.

[: There’s a voice coming out of your speakers? Interesting. Definitely put Angel on.

{: What? No!

[: Jack, stop being stubborn. This will work, trust me. The voice should be fixed now.

{: What will work? I have no idea what’s happening!

“Dad, let me do this. I can handle myself,” Angel pleaded, reaching slowly towards the ECHO.

“What if you two… _merge_ again? I can’t handle that, and I don’t think Rhys could either. Angel, he’s broken. I don’t know what he did-”

“Daddy,” Angel didn’t hesitate this time, pulling the tablet away slowly. Jack didn’t fight her. Both Angel and Rhys seemed to understand things, seemed to know something he didn’t know. He was beginning to really hate this feeling.

“Fine, but don’t-”

“Don’t merge. I got it,” her attention went to the tablet. Jack was also really beginning to hate Angel interrupting him.

||: Heya, Rhys. What’s up?

[: Angel, good. I need your help. You have a part of code in your head that I need. Your dad’s gonna be mad, but I need it.

||: He’ll only be mad if we tell him.

[: You’ll need to activate your abilities, he can’t see you do it or he’ll stop.

||: No worries, he’s gotta go to work today.

[: Don’t you have school?

||: Nope. Dad won’t let me go, keeps calling me in sick.

[: Oh. Then this works perfectly.

||: So… What is it? What do you need?

[: Remember when you were in the room with me? The digital one? I need that. I’m going to host myself in it.

||: You’re gonna make a control room! Oh my god, that’s genius! I think this could work.

[: I do too. While you were talking to your dad about french toast, which I’m really excited for, I took a look at some code. We’ve got three sets, this file I’m running off is the main. It’s what your dad scraped before my body shut down. We’ve also got the corrupt file and you.

||: Oh…

[: Yeah, that’s where things get tricky. Luckily, you won’t touch the corrupt file, but…

||: But you’ll have to merge somehow, find a way to seam them together.

[: The corrupt file is the only code that actually ran through the body, everything else is superficial. I need to get into that corrupt file, but I can’t unless I get that room.

||: I’ll do it.

[: Angel, it’s gonna be hard. It’s nothing you’ve ever done before. Getting into a system is easy, I should know. Giving a part of you to something else, that’s hard.

||: It’ll be like digital architecture, I got this.

[: Angel, if you can’t separate from me this time, there’s no one to help us. You couldn’t do it last time, but I could. When we connect, nothing can go wrong or we’ll both be stuck in your room forever.

||: So no escape rope?

[: No escape rope. You’ll make the room, I’ll enter, you leave. You have to leave.

||: I’ll be able to do it. Promise.

[: You’d better, or we’ll both be in cyber purgatory.

||: It’s on. Let's do this.

**Author's Note:**

> Please Kudos, Comments, Bookmarks... It's how I know there's other trash like me out there... In the void...
> 
> Find me over on tumblr at either connortemple.tumblr.com or hawketrash.tumblr.com


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